No one is having more fun in this world than Taylor Swift.
No one.
Do you blame her? The golden goose that is “1989” keeps laying diamond-encrusted eggs, this summer’s arena tour is going to be titanic, and we’re three hit singles in to the new album and the freight train is only picking up speed.
When “Style” (unfortunately) replaced “Blank Space” on the radio playlists, it was time for the next hit, and after an Instagram-fueled hysteria that built for a solid week and a half, the video for “Bad Blood” debuted last night. Or, more appropriately, the video was shot out of a Howitzer and exploded on Twitter and the Billboard Music Awards.
Boom went the internet.
Let’s not mince words- my girl Taylor wrote this song about ex-pal Katy Perry, who famously backstabbed her, even putting Selena Gomez in a Katy Perry-esque wig to play the villain role in the video. At this point, though, this video is gratuitous payback- Swift has become a transcendent star, and Katy is still making her cutesy-cartoony pop hits. Katy might have been sporty and serious in her boxing ring performance of “Roar” from 2013, but Taylor’s calling in the big guns in “Bad Blood.”
Game over.
After I got over the fact that a) Bad Blood is not one of the better songs on “1989”, and b) the remix does not make it better, it became obvious that the video is actually outstanding.
The video is a supercharged, high-octane potion and commotion that smacks of Toxic, The Fifth Element, Black Swan, Batman Begins, the Austin Powers Femme-bots, Alias, Inception, Fight Club, Tron, Mission Impossible: Ghost Protocol, and The Matrix. Ellie Goulding launches an RPG, Cindy Crawford (Cindy Crawford?!) makes an appearance, Lena Dunham wickedly smokes a cigar, and more or less all of Taylor’s best friends get to dress up and kick ass, which I’m sure was a lot more fun than dressing up and going to a backyard party in the “22” video. Not even in her wildest dreams could Katy Perry make this video happen.
And in a true testament to girl power and tough chicks, which given the debut of Mad Max: Fury Road and Charlize Theron's tough-as-nails role in that film is clearly the zeitgeist of the moment, there's nary a man to be found in this video other than Kendrick Lamar, whose role really is superfluous.
Because after all, bad girls don't need men fighting their battles- Taylor and her crew has it taken care of.
Enjoy the spectacle, here you go.
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